WASHINGTON — Days after a gunman attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other top Republicans are calling for the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.
“I will be asking for her to resign,” Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, said Wednesday during an appearance on Fox News at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. “This is unacceptable. … She gave the media the explanation that the roof was tilted and there were safety concerns, but that doesn’t work. I think she’s shown what her priorities are.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, one of Johnson’s top aides, called for Cheatle’s resignation on Tuesday.
Johnson’s call for resignation came just hours before top law enforcement officials were scheduled to hold separate unclassified online briefings for House and Senate members about Saturday’s mass shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a gunman identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on Trump as he was addressing a rally, killing one spectator and critically wounding two others. Trump was wounded in the right ear.
FBI Director Christopher Wray, Deputy FBI Director Paul Abbate, and Deputy Director of the Secret Service Ronald Lowe are on the briefing list. Cheatle is not on the House briefing list, but is on the Senate list.
The House Oversight Committee said it plans to issue a subpoena if Cheatle refuses to appear at a hearing on Monday focused on the security breach.
In an interview with Fox News, Johnson also said he would create a special House task force to investigate the shooting and security failures when lawmakers return to the Capitol on Monday, as he works to streamline several congressional investigations.
“The reason we’re taking that approach is because it’s a more precise attack. It’s quicker, there are fewer procedural hurdles, and the task force has subpoena power,” Johnson said. “Republicans and Democrats will come together to get to the bottom of this quickly and ensure the American people get the answers they deserve.”
Lawmakers have many questions about Saturday’s shocking assassination attempt. Perhaps most importantly, why the roof of a building less than 150 yards from Trump was not secured by the Secret Service or local police. Lawmakers also want to know why a Secret Service sniper on another roof in the same area did not fire on the gunman until after Crooks had fired multiple shots.
Cheatle told ABC News this week that he has no plans to resign, but clarified, “The responsibility is mine. I’m the director of the Secret Service.”
She said the Secret Service was responsible for securing the inner perimeter of the rally, and local police were responsible for securing the outer area of the rally, including the building Crooks climbed in. Republicans also noted that she told ABC News that the building Crooks climbed had a “sloped roof at the highest point” and that “you don’t want somebody to be on a sloping roof.”
Cheatle has been inconsistent in his public statements, telling ABC News that local police were in the building where the gunman broke into the roof and opened fire. A Secret Service official later told NBC News on Wednesday that local SWAT teams were not in the building, but were in a different part of the complex.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told NBC News on Wednesday that Cheatle was referring to the AGR Glass “building,” a large manufacturing facility made up of interconnected housing units.
This raises new questions about the level of planning and communication between the Secret Service and local law enforcement officials, and whether local teams were best positioned to protect the perimeter, or whether a local sniper team might have been in a building overlooking the roof, giving them an even better view of the roof the shooter used.
Johnson told Fox News he spoke with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas by phone “within hours” of Saturday’s shooting, but “did not receive a satisfactory answer at the time.” He also said he had spoken with FBI Director Wray and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.
“We don’t have any answers. I think they’re gathering data and we will too. We need to be held accountable for this. This is unacceptable,” Johnson said. “Clearly there was a security lapse. You don’t have to be a special operations expert to understand that. We’ll get to the bottom of it very soon.”
